Smarty Jones, the Kentucky Derby winner born at Fairthorne Farm in Chester County, recently bit one of his biggest fans, but there were no hard feelings in the end, writes Rini Jeffers for USA Today.

Rini Jeffers visited him at his barn, and she could not hide her excitement at meeting him. It was a surprise birthday gift; her family didn’t tell her where they were going until they pulled up to the barn all the way from Ohio.

“You have no idea how much you mean to me,” she said to the animal. “You were my favorite.”

Now 23 years old, Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby in 2004 and was close to breaking the Triple Crown that year.

But as thrilled as Jeffers was to meet him, Smarty Jones was not as delighted, and he ended up biting her.

Never meet your idols is the usual saying in such situations, but for this fan, the ‘rules’ did not apply.

“Tell that to someone who isn’t a little thrilled thinking, one minute after a 1,200-pound horse bites her, that it was Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones that did the biting,” she wrote.

Read more about Smarty Jones and Rini Jeffers’ trip to see him in USA Today.

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